CIA • 1989

NID: EAST GERMANY: LEADERSHIP CONCERNS

Approved for Release: 2019/10/29 C06826767 6.2(d) EAST GERMANY: Leadership Concerns The growing exodus of East Germans to the West and the announcement that East German leader Honecker has undergone major surgery probably are increasin uncertainty in the leadership and may stiffen opposition to reform. he 77-year-old Honecker is recovering from gallbladder surgery he had last week. A gallstone attack at the Warsaw Pact summit in Bucharest last month forced him to go back to East Germany, where he reoortedlv had been vacationing since his return1 Meanwhile, more than 1,000 East Germans ostensibly vacationing in Hungary fled across the border to Austria last weekend, most throu a gate left open during a picnic celebrating European unity...